


memoria aeterna (in memory of eternity)

by promise_june



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27757159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/promise_june/pseuds/promise_june
Summary: “Some people call us “old souls”. We reincarnate, and weremember.”(Jisung meets his soulmate, a boy carved right out of his dreams. It’s more than he expects, but it’s perfect and it feels right.)
Relationships: Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43
Collections: Challenge #3 — soulmates





	memoria aeterna (in memory of eternity)

Jisung’s been dreaming about a boy for a long time. The surroundings would change but it was always the same boy who showed up. 

People always say that you never remember your dreams, but Jisung would recall the scenes even weeks later, a bit faded but nevertheless there and present in his memory. 

He could close his eyes and sketch out every detail of the boy’s face, from the affection in his eyes to the curve of his mouth as he smiled. 

He brushes it off as a strange obsession, maybe his repressed longing for a romance. 

But he never expects to ever see this boy in reality.

And for all the years Jisung keeps dreaming, he doesn’t. Not until one night, when he’s out with his roommates. 

He sees him in a crowded nightclub, catching a glimpse through the crowd as the neon lasers light it up with blue and purple. He swore his eyes flashed silver, and Jisung thinks maybe he should stop drinking now. 

Oh, but then he gets a better look, as the boy seems to be moving towards him. Was that his imagination? He’s mesmerized by his eyes, so dark that he thought they would suck all light out of the room. And when the boy finally stands before him, clearly addressing him, Jisung shakes himself out of his stupor. 

The boy is ethereal. 

Time seems to stop as they stare at each other, and every molecule of Jisung’s being is screaming to reach out and touch him. 

“I found you.” 

The boy reaches out to gently cup Jisung’s cheek with a hand, and with that soft touch, there’s a quiet _click_ that resounds throughout his mind. Something falls into place and images flash before his eyes, surfacing along with a name that comes to his lips subconsciously. 

“Chenle,” he murmurs. Eyes wide with shock, Jisung continues on to speak the words resonating from the depths of his being. “My soulmate.”

✕✕✕✕✕

Jisung doesn’t know why, but he trusts Chenle. Normally wary of strangers and reluctant to open up to even his close friends, even if it was his soulmate, Jisung didn’t expect to feel so much like an open book to someone he just met. 

From the moment they crossed paths (no, even before then), Jisung thinks he would do anything for him, give Chenle any secret he wanted. It’s odd, how calm he feels in light of this awareness, but something about his dreams and this tug he feels towards Chenle makes him feel that this was right. It was how things should be, the strings of fate pulling them together. 

So he follows this potential serial killer - no matter how pretty he was, and even if he was his soulmate, he could still be a serial killer, he reminds himself - outside the club and into his car (a very nice car, for his age, Jisung noted), all the way to his apartment. (Also a very nice apartment.)

Chenle gives a brief introduction to Jisung during the car ride, but it’s not until they’re seated in his living room that Jisung really gets an answer to the questions swirling around his head. 

Chenle sits next to Jisung on the couch, facing him, and holds his hand as he prepares to speak. He taps a finger to his cheek as he seems to gather his thoughts. 

“Our ‘family’… some people call us “old souls”. We reincarnate, and we _remember_.”

“We’re still us, the ones born in the 21st century, but when you regain your memories, something else awakens and comes back with them.” 

Chenle explains that they’re careful not to reawaken too young, or they end up incomplete. It’s not a big deal, just something to wait another lifetime for, but it was damaging and painful for their current lifetime, always wondering when everyone else remembered. 

Jisung nods, and wonders how it started. He’s surprisingly accepting of all the information, but Jisung’s always thought that the universe held secrets beyond his knowledge and he’s always believed in fate. 

“I don’t know, but we’ve always been together, since the start.” Chenle smiles and bops a kiss onto Jisung’s cheek. 

“Hmmm, it’s easiest with a soul bond but we have many ways to invoke memories.” Chenle tilts his head consideringly. “Do you want to try them?” 

His expression falls the slightest bit, despite his attempt to keep his disappointment hidden, and Jisung rushes to assure this boy he barely knew an hour ago. “No! Of course a soul bond is fine.”

He doesn’t want to let down Chenle, and it’s a little scary how willing he is to acquiesce to anything he asks. But still, there’s a feeling in his soul that this was the path he was destined for, and the already partially formed bond tugs at him. Jisung _knows_ he’s doing the right thing. Somewhere, deep inside him, Jisung knows he’s been waiting for this boy his whole life. 

✕✕✕✕✕

They seal their soul bond with a quick ritual, and Jisung is slammed with memories, images gaining clarity as they fill his consciousness. 

“You remember?” Chenle’s eyes are shining with anticipation. 

“Gimme a moment, Lele.” Jisung holds one hand up and cradles his head with the other, so overcome by the pain that he doesn’t notice the nickname slip through as it rolls off his tongue with an odd familiarity. 

“You remember!” Chenle launches himself onto Jisung, hanging from his neck as he chatters at breakneck speed. 

“Oh, you’ve missed so much! We found you a little late this time, I kept waiting for you! You won’t _believe_ what Renjun and Jeno ended up as this time. They’re on enemy lines, isn’t that just the funniest? Those two, of all people! And then Mark and Haechan-” 

Jisung pats Chenle’s head absentmindedly, nodding his head almost habitually as he half-listens, half-organizes all his ‘new’ memories. 

✕✕✕✕✕

Jisung spends the next two weeks adjusting to the influx of knowledge and memories. There’s a bit of deja vu as, from time to time as he worked on reorganizing everything in his mind, he’d recognize a memory or a place from his dreams. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Chenle - he did, instinctively, more than anyone else in his life, as strange as it was -, but the coincidence just helped to cement his words in truth. 

Chenle teaches him a bit, guiding him through the process of adjustment to his new _traits_. He’s always excited and tells Jisung a lot about the rest of their ‘family’, who were scattered around and across several countries. Jisung was one of the last few to reawaken, so he would be meeting almost everyone at the next holiday break. 

Speaking of family, when they reach the topic one day, Jisung wonders about his current family. Chenle reassures him that nothing has to change, but warns that it was probably better not to tell them about everything. Jisung understands; it’s fortunate his family had always been happy to support him no matter his choices. They had raised him to be independent and allowed him to make his own decisions in his life. 

And along with that, he makes another decision. He tells Chenle that he’d bring him back to meet his current family too. 

Even with his messy memories, he can feel that Chenle is important to him. As they spend time together, both with normal things like playing games online and watching shows and talking about the latest trends, and with ‘other’ things like learning to control his new traits, Jisung becomes more and more certain of his soulmate. 

Chenle talks a lot to Jisung but he also listens attentively to all his contemplations and thoughts, no matter how trivial or arbitrary.

He takes care of Jisung when he messes up and always makes sure that he’s not injured or tired. 

No matter how badly Jisung gets tangled up or messes up, with cooking or getting used to his powers, Chenle will just fake an exasperated sigh and laugh, taking over and cleaning up. 

He never likes seeing the crestfallen look on Chenle’s face when Jisung hesitates to answer him with a memory, so he works hard to remember and understand. He’s quick to learn their rituals and powers, integrating them into his habits as naturally as his memories showed him to. 

With his memories, Chenle easily becomes a fixture in his life, and Jisung falls into an all too familiar routine with him. 

Regardless of his memories, he knows he wants Chenle to stay. 

* * *

Jisung disappears for two weeks, and when he returns, suddenly and casually walking into class, there was something different about him. 

When he smiled, it was a little awkward, tight and close-mouthed. When he laughed, the teeth he flashed seemed a bit too sharp to be human. 

His eyes, the same dark brown as they had always been, were just a bit deeper, just a bit hypnotizing if you looked a bit too long. 

Sometimes he’d space out and there would be a strange knowledge and age in his gaze that didn’t belong to a second-year university student, but he’d soon snap back to attention and nothing would seem amiss. 

He was the same as he always was, a bit pensive, if strangely distant from the rest of his class. Even before this, there had always been a feeling that an invisible wall separated him from the rest of them. 

After class, his face lights up at the sight of a boy no one had seen before. He practically flies to the door to meet him, and a few classmates wonder if it was a trick of the light, the way his outline had seemed to blur as he ran. It was strange, one moment they could swear he had been packing up at the back of the classroom, and the next he was at the door, cheerfully chatting with his visitor.

There was a sense that no one could intrude on the two of them. 

His classmates wonder, but Jisung continues on with classes as if nothing happened. Soon enough everyone forgets as Chenle becomes a regular part of his life. 

Life goes on, and eventually those two missing weeks stay only with the two of them. 

After all, time swallows everything, but their memories belonged to them forever, inscribed in their souls. 

Eternity is theirs, and only theirs. 

**Author's Note:**

> chenji are my babies
> 
> Kudos and comments are very much appreciated! I hope you liked it~


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